Published: February 12, 2025
The team entered a rest period, and everyone showed signs of relaxation, but there was no joy among them.
Amus's threat was one aspect to consider; after all, it was easy to imagine that this woman would relentlessly follow Ye Zhongming, looking for any opportunity to avenge her son and husband.
They were not afraid, but the feeling of being watched was quite unsettling.
Another reason for their lack of happiness was the obvious increase in the number of deaths during the second cycle. Aside from the last thousand who were directly eliminated, several thousand newcomers had been completely buried on this planet.
Ye Zhongming found it hard to understand why so many people had died in just three days; the previous cycle hadn't seen this many deaths.
The total number of survivors was now just over twenty-five thousand.
The team tried to find some clues on the recording devices, but they returned empty-handed.
They felt that something must have happened, but they could not guess what it was.
"Captain's ranking is twenty-one..." Husky exclaimed as he looked at Ye Zhongming, truly admiring this ranking.
Although he was currently ranked over a thousand, he had researched those in the top ranks, knowing that many were specifically cultivated by certain factions, supported by various teams, and even within the top ten, there was a small team with powerful abilities that was crazy about scoring points, which others could not compete with for the time being.
Yet, under these circumstances, Ye Zhongming was almost entering the top twenty after two small cycles while being hunted by enemies, which was an outstanding achievement.
This was partly due to him hunting many powerful beings, as well as killing several newcomers.
On the leaderboard for killing fellow players with red names, Ye Zhongming had already entered the top fifteen.
Another point Husky envied was Jie Kui; this guy had been following Ye Zhongming from the beginning, and now his ranking had entered the top five hundred. If it weren't for being hunted by Amus for half a day and not killing any newcomers, his ranking would be even higher. Even Shikangbu, who started following Ye Zhongming at the beginning of the second cycle, had entered the top one thousand, just two hundred places higher than Husky.
Of course, He’s ranking was also decent, around three hundred, almost four hundred, but that was due to her previous accumulation. Additionally, with the end of this cycle soon leading to the calculation of Advancement Pills and such, her points would likely increase again, possibly pushing her closer to the two hundred mark.
"I'll stay with He to help her refine some medicine; you all can move freely, but make sure to get a good three to four hours of rest."
Ye Zhongming instructed before planning to stay close to He to ensure she could refine her pills in peace. Although the novice camp wouldn’t face attacks, many had begun to pay attention to He after the events of the first cycle, and there were certainly bad people everywhere who would intentionally disturb her while she was refining medicinal pills, especially those ranked close to her.
At the same time, Ye Zhongming planned to accompany He to the free market beforehand to buy more materials so she could refine more and better medicines.
"Captain, I have something to discuss."
Husky stopped Ye Zhongming, not avoiding the other members of the team, and said in a low voice, "Captain, even though our situation seems good now, we also have many hidden concerns. Besides Amus, we also face intense competition and... some individuals with alternative ideas."
Everyone understood what Husky referred to; the so-called individuals with alternative ideas included those ‘hunters’ targeting red names and those who wanted to kill Ye Zhongming's team to pick up cheap points due to their high scores.
As for the intense competition, it meant that due to Ye Zhongming's high ranking, he would inevitably come under the scrutiny of top newcomers, who would see the King of Cloud Summit and his team as opponents. There were many ways to compete; no one could say with certainty what they would face.